The draw will be made one year and eight months before the World Cup in Australia, compared to two years and nine months for the 2023 World Cup.
Criticized for its early draw for the current edition, carried out in December 2020, World Rugby announced, Tuesday October 24, that the groups for the 2027 World Cup would be revealed in January 2026, i.e. one year and eight months before kick off.
This announcement comes in a context of strong controversy, while the table for the 2023 World Cup appeared unbalanced. The four best nations in the world, all placed in pools A and B, faced each other in the quarter-finals, thus depriving France and Ireland of the last four. Conversely, the other part of the table allowed Argentina to reach the semi-finals without forcing, before suffering a large defeat (6-44) against the All Blacks.
“I understand the frustration around the timing of the draw for this World Cup. But remember we were in the middle of a global pandemic: no one was playing rugby at that time. We had to use the existing ranking to be able to plan ahead of this awesome competition”justified Alan Gilpin, general director of World Rugby.
The groups were designated almost three years before the competition, with seeds based on the World Rugby rankings at the end of the previous edition, in 2019. But the world hierarchy has, in the meantime, been largely shaken up and the status seeding granted to Wales and England seemed archaic.
The delay remains quite long, World Rugby is justified
For the 2027 edition, contested in Australia with 24 teams compared to 20 currently, the groups will be known twenty months before the World Cup. The deadline remains quite long, especially in comparison with the draw for a World Cup, carried out six months in advance.
The 2026 and 2027 editions of the Six Nations Tournament and the Rugby Championship will be played in the meantime, as will the new Nations League, launched in 2026 and intended to replace the summer and autumn tours. It is therefore not said that the pools drawn in January 2026 are consistent with the dynamics of September 2027.
“We felt that it would be too late to wait until the end of international matches in November 2026explained Alan Gilpin. This would jeopardize ticket sales and tournament financing. Fans would be very frustrated not to be able to plan with certainty less than a year before the World Cup.”